L.C. Tyler is a bestselling British author, well-known for his comic crime fiction. Born and raised in Southend, Essex, Tyler attended Jesus College at Oxford University, where he studied geography. He later went on to study system analysis at City University in London.
During his career, Tyler has held various positions with the British Council and has lived in several countries, including Malaysia, Sudan, Thailand, Denmark, and Hong Kong. He is currently based in Islington and West Sussex and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, of which he was previously the Chief Executive. Tyler is married and has two children and one dog.
Tyler is a past chair of the Crime Writers Association and has written several crime series, including the Elsie and Ethelred Mystery series and the John Grey Historical Mystery series. His first novel, The Herring Seller's Apprentice, was published in 2007, and he has since published numerous novels in the "Herring Mysteries" series, many of which have been translated into French and published in the US. The first four books in the series were nominated for Edgar Allan Poe Awards in the US, and two of them, Herring in the Library and Crooked Herring, won the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award for the best comic crime novel in 2010 and 2014, respectively.
In addition to the Herring Mysteries series, Tyler has also written a new crime series featuring C17th lawyer John Grey. The first book in the series, A Cruel Necessity, was published in 2014, and subsequent books include A Masterpiece of Corruption, The Plague Road, Fire, The Bleak Midwinter, and Death of a Shipbuilder. Fire was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger in 2018. Outside of these series, Tyler has published one humorous (non-crime) novel, A Very Persistent Illusion, and has contributed to two of the Detection Club's books, The Sinking Admiral and Howdunit. He has also written occasional short stories, some of which have won awards.